Campaign briefing

If you're learning about our new Suicide Prevention Scotland campaign for the first time, here are the key headlines you should know:

• Our new national campaign co-created by people with lived and living experience of suicide

• It asks people to consider, “What if a conversation about suicide could save a life?”

• The campaign features four people with deeply personal experiences each of whom has written letter

• A new website has been launched to provide information and resources for people concerned for themselves or others - suicideprevention.scot

• This is the start of Scotland’s biggest ever conversation about suicide - everyone can play their part

The best way to learn about our new campaign is to watch a briefing, delivered by co-strategic communications leads Lawrence Broadie and Lauren Bennett.

Scotland’s new national suicide prevention campaign is now live.

Bold, unflinching, and deeply personal, it’s been entirely co-produced by people with lived and living experience of suicide.

It comes as a new website with a range of information, resources and a new local services directory is launched at SuicidePrevention.scot.

The campaign asks a simple question, “What if a conversation about suicide could save a life?”

It features four people, each of whom agreed to share their story having been bereaved by, attempted or actively considered suicide.

They do so by writing a letter to a loved one, or themself, which feature in a powerful new film.

The idea behind the campaign is that we need to normalise talking about suicide and give people the confidence to have a conversation that might just save someone’s life.

The four participants are Seonaid Stallan, Ross Cunningham, Clare Collin, and Laura Junor. They came together to share their letters and discuss their experiences, in a series of moving conversations. 

In doing so they are creating a game-changing moment when Scotland will start to have its biggest ever conversation about suicide.

The launch of Scotland's new national campaign is an opportunity for organisations that work in suicide prevention to get involved.

A toolkit is available, with the option of including your own organisation's branding. This includes digital, social and print-ready assets. We can also supply the lead film, with accessible SRT files.

To date over 50 organisations have now received resources.

If you're thinking of developing your own story-led content for the campaign, please check out these guides co-developed by Scottish Recovery Network and our Suicide Prevention Scotland Lived & Living Experience panel.